Iraq seeks consultant to manage Nassiriya oil, refining project

The December auction is scheduled to include firms such as France's Total, Russia's Lukoil, India's Reliance Industries and ONGC Videsh and several from Japan. The ministry gave no details on the cost.

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By HASSAN HAFIDH

Iraq is seeking to appoint a project management consultant
to its multi-billion dollar Nassiriya oil project in the south, the oil
ministry said in an announcement Tuesday, inviting
international companies to submit their "expressions of
interest" to prequalify them for the contract.

Iraq is planning to auction the integrated project -- developing the 4.4
billion bbl Nassiriya oil field and building a 300,000 bpd
refinery -- on Dec. 19.

The consultation contract would be awarded after results of
the bidding round in December, the ministry said. It set Sept.
16 as the closing date for receiving expressions of interest
from companies.

The ministry gave no details on the cost of the consulting
contract.

Companies such as France's Total, Russia's Lukoil, India's Reliance Industries and ONGC
Videsh and a number of Japanese companies have paid the
participation fees to take part in the December auction, Iraqi
oil ministry officials said.

A workshop for participating companies would be held in
Amman on Sept. 16-17 when the oil ministry would brief
participating companies and listen to their comments on a draft
contract for the project prepared by the ministry's
petroleum contracts and licensing directorate, they
added.